Excellent piece by @stephenkb.bsky.social about the Henry Nowak case and what it does/doesn't show about policing www.ft.com/content/aa94...

I am really, really worried about how little mainstream broadcasters and politicians are pushing back against explicit racism. It isn’t difficult to contextualise or challenge with facts. They manage it on other topics.

Indeed. In the 1960s many more people held racist attitudes but both the government and opposition were consistent in condemning open racism. We now have am emboldened and tolerated minority by both government and opposition.

"I wonder why the birthrate briefly increased slightly in 2021, 9 months after everyone was forced to stay home with nothing to do, then dipped again as the public mood soured? The only possible explanation is immigrants."

Really enjoyed answering Mathew’s questions about books and reading.

New on the Writer’s Bookshelf this morning: eight questions about writers, books, and reading with the brilliant @samirashackle.bsky.social.

We love to see it!

Honestly, one of the funniest tweets I've ever seen.

Latest data due tomorrow but your regular reminder: net migration is *plunging* without these plans being enacted.

Yeah I have a pension plan it’s called the sweet release of death

Wild story from @londoncentric.media about a Bollywood couple buying up a bunch of flats near their Notting Hill mansion to house their staff www.londoncentric.media/p/sonam-kapo...

Terrific journalism from actually looking at the money flows as.ft.com/r/1e5fba60-4...

Reform are very good at moving the goalposts. They said they’d win Gorton and Denton (lost by 12pts), win Wales (lost by 6pts), destroy the Tories in 2026 (PNS rose vs 2025) and win six London boroughs (won one). Each time journalists concluded those outcomes were clear from the outset

Very good and informative thread.

The local elections in one chart. Labour has been squeezed between the Greens in young wards and Reform in older working-class wards www.economist.com/britain/2026...

I am getting so many obviously AI-generated emails telling me my book has been selected for a book club, or that "your podcast The Audio Long Read is fire!" Can't actually be bothered to see what the scam element is but I assume there is one.

This is a pretty damning resignation letter. Seems to sum up the problem of inertia at the heart of government very well.

Quite remarkable that you can mess up a landslide victory quite this badly and quite this quickly. Labour had huge potential to achieve whatever it wanted to. Instead they are going the way of the Conservatives - interminable civil war.

Let nobody say there isn't a plan in place

I’d hypothesise this happened here too: hospitals, magistrates courts, police stations etc concentrated in bigger centres, so solid jobs go, local services then fold, shops close - a downward spiral 1/2

Someone told me lately "Bluesky is just like Twitter." I argued that was untrue on the basis that last time I had a Twitter account most times I got a new follower their bio said "single & looking for fun" & here when I get a new follower it tends to say something like "professor of rare moths".

For reference here is the “before” picture - 2024 local elections results

The “Blue Labour” strategy still being promoted by some on Labour right is premised on being able to win social conservatives while holding on to social liberals. Failure state for this strategy is failing to win social cons while alienating social liberals. Here is a map of that failure state:

Among other things... With London's election results coming so close in places, I had a look at three random councils - in 82% of cases the candidate whose surname appeared highest on the ballot paper outperformed the party colleague who was alphabetically lowest. May have caused some split results.

Interesting from Sir John Curtice, the UKs top polling expert on Englands council election and the Reform surge

Evergreen headline.

People who are critical of Zack Polanski (and I’m increasingly one of them) need to be able to recognise that, even if you think he’s handling antisemitism within his party really badly, he is himself a victim of antisemitism.

I cannot recommend this week's cover story by @christopherjm.ft.com highly enough. It's the frankly astonishing story of the fortitude of one Ukrainian drone commander on the eastern front... don't miss it... as.ft.com/r/ddae74ad-4...

Fwiw I don't think protests should be banned. If people are doing illegal things on them they should be arrested under existed laws. Otherwise it's important to protect free speech.

This is a good statement by Sadiq about the horrific attack in Golders Green. It’s so disheartening to see politicians like Farage already using it to stir up division.

Informative thread.

This is an astonishingly successful public policy reform, and so heartening. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

This story is absolutely insane. Somehow each paragraph is madder than the last. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is really damning. The whole report was so shocking to anyone who knows anything about the asylum system.

Such an interesting (and depressing!) post.

Excellent piece about trophy hunting as conservation by my friend Cal Flyn. It's an extract from her excellent book which is out next month! www.theguardian.com/environment/...

State of the media industry: emailing editors who asked me to let them know when I was back from maternity leave, to find that many have been made redundant.

It’s the most Bluesky thing that’s ever happened: Comment is Freed x London Centric local elections prediction collab just dropped. www.londoncentric.media/p/london-loc...

Please help share what must be one of the best jobs ever. We are looking for a writer to join @ourworldindata.org to work with our fantastic team including @maxroser.bsky.social and @hannahritchie.bsky.social. £80k - £120k / ideally full time / location flexible ourworldindata.org/hiring-write...

It's not as high profile as all the other failings of the last government, but the total collapse of the court system thanks to Chris Grayling is one of the most damning.

The recruitment and treatment of some international University students in the UK is a scandal worthy of far more attention. This is vital reporting from @samirashackle.bsky.social - shining a light on appalling exploitation. www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

In 2014, Tareena Shakil ran away to Syria with her toddler. Realising she had made a terrible mistake, she escaped within a few months. After time in prison and a long process of rehabilitation, she is now reinventing herself as a TikTok agony aunt www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

This Reform leaflet from three Gateshead candidates looks like a timelapse of the same person

In 2014, Tareena Shakil ran away to Syria with her toddler. Realising she had made a terrible mistake, she escaped within a few months. After time in prison and a long process of rehabilitation, she is now reinventing herself as a TikTok agony aunt www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Hall of fame FT correction

This is catastrophic.

"Even if people are forced to cut back on all other forms of spending, they’ll always need water, energy and somewhere to live." Such a good piece by @hettieobrien.bsky.social, who has an astonishing ability to make clear the human stakes of abstract economics www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Pretty much everyone involved in overseas student recruitment in the UK — from government officials making the policy down to universities setting targets for students — should read this and feel deeply ashamed.

"Sam needed extra work, and he found shifts at a vegetable packing factory on Dundee’s outskirts, washing and packaging vegetables for Tesco and Aldi. He worked 10-hour shifts at minimum wage. 'By that time, my ego had died, so I had accepted: OK, we can do this,' he told me."